The present invention relates to telecommunications and in particular to reporting phone number usage in a telecommunications network.
Modern telecommunications systems have been deployed world-wide, thus enabling users from around the world to easily communicate with each other. Service providers that provide these systems, typically offer their customers a variety of services including, for example, toll free service, mobile service, and traditional residential and business services. Customers are typically assigned one or more telephone numbers which enable them to access the service including placing as well as receiving telephone calls.
Service providers typically bill their customers for these services on either a usage basis or a flat fee basis. With flat fee billing, a customer is typically allowed unlimited access to the service for a fixed flat fee. On the other hand, with usage based billing, a customer is billed for each use of the service. Here, usage may be billed on a call duration basis as well as on a call location basis.
Billing is often performed on a month-to-month basis. Typically, a service provider generates a hard copy billing report after a month's worth of usage and sends the report to the customer. The report usually comprises a list of services used and an amount that is being charged for the services. In addition, usage based billing reports may provide additional detail for each service used including, for example, calling and called phone numbers, locations of the calling and called parties and call duration.
One problem with reporting usage on a monthly basis is that the information may not be timely enough to enable a customer to monitor and react to various trends in their service use. For example, a customer may want to monitor trends in call traffic so that it may be able to efficiently and quickly redeploy resources to handle peaks and valleys in call traffic. Also, for example, a customer may want to monitor call volume associated with various telephone numbers to determine if the numbers are being used improperly and react quickly to mitigate costs.